Immaculate & Three Pitch Innings

Immaculate innings are those in which the pitcher retires 3 opposing batters with 9 strikes. While once extremely rare, they seem to be more common in modern times. Why? Well, the advent of relief pitchers and specialized closers have a lot to do with it; the guys that can come in and toss 6-20 pitches near 100 mph or even faster. More immaculate innings have occurred in the 9th than in any other. Even more exclusive is the 3-pitch club. These are pitchers that started an inning and retired 3 batters with 3 pitches. There are some pretty unusual names on the list and even one pitcher that managed the feat in his first official professional showing. These lists are not official as “pitch-count” is not a formalized MLB statistic and the numbers for the first hundred+ years are culled from news reports and other sources.

(Via Baseball Almanac.)